7. Feedlot

Bovine Respiratory Disease: Feedlot Operation

Dr. Anderson's next call was to one of the feedlots that was purchasing Pat's calves which were developing BRD at the feedlot. Bill, the feedlot manager, asked Dr. Anderson to come to the feedlot because the cattle have been having more problems lately with BRD.

Last year, Doc computed BRD rates by farm of origin and helped Bill identify farms that had high rates of BRD. He determined that most of those farms with high rates of BRD had not been preconditioning their cattle. To encourage preconditioning of calves, Bill's feedlot began paying more for preconditioned calves (and less for calves that were not preconditioned).